Long slams former candidate over IRA remarks

Philip Bradfield

Published:18:30Saturday 08 July 2017

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The Alliance Party leader has slammed a former would-be MP for the party for an extended string of comments about the IRA’s terror campaign.

Gerard Catney, who stood for Alliance in the 2015 Westminster election, entered into a Facebook debate with Naomi Long about claims from Sinn Fein MEP Liadh Ni Riada that ISIS terrorism cannot be compared with that of the IRA.

Mr Catney said: “Terrorism implies indiscriminate killing.

“The IRA went after specific targets, economic and key personnel, as part of its military campaign...

“The conflict was the result of the systematic and institutional discrimination against Catholics in Northern Ireland.”

But Mrs Long responded: “Is this SDLP policy now, Gerard? Because until now they always made a virtue of the fact that they opposed discrimination by purely peaceful means?”

Gerard Catney’s exact relationship with the SDLP was unclear at time of going to print last night.

Continuing the debate with Mrs Long online, Mr Catney responded: “Naomi, I don’t speak for the SDLP. I oppose all unnecessary violence but I draw the line at labelling Catholic freedom fighters ‘Terrorists’.”